


twice in as many days

by Twice_before_Friday



Series: Altered & Extended - season 1 [13]
Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Episode: s01e13 Wait and Hope, Explosions, Gen, Stand Alone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22791331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twice_before_Friday/pseuds/Twice_before_Friday
Summary: As the man in the storage room slowly turned to face him, Malcolm noticed two things immediately.The first was that Ernesto Cora was terrified. Even in the dim light of the bootlegging tunnels, he could see the fear shining though the man's wide eyes, could see the tension in his muscles where he was strung so tightly that the hood of his jacket was trembling in time with the fine tremor that was shaking the man from head to toe.The second was that Ernesto Cora was holding a black widow land mine.
Relationships: Gil Arroyo & Malcolm Bright
Series: Altered & Extended - season 1 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1557952
Comments: 6
Kudos: 92





	twice in as many days

**Author's Note:**

> All works in this series are stand alone. You don't need to have read the others to read this one.
> 
> This is an alternate scene for when Malcolm finds Ernesto in the bootlegging tunnels.

_Hello? The wedding committee are taking orders for dinner. I've got the menu. They're thinking Ecuadorian._

_Ernesto? Don't move._

\---

As the man in the storage room slowly turned to face him, Malcolm noticed two things immediately.

The first was that Ernesto Cora was terrified. Even in the dim light of the bootlegging tunnels, he could see the fear shining though the man's wide eyes, could see the tension in his muscles where he was strung so tightly that the hood of his jacket was trembling in time with the fine tremor that was shaking the man from head to toe.

The second was that Ernesto Cora was holding a black widow land mine.

Malcolm's brain stuttered to a halt for a split second, white noise filling his head as his vision tunneled down to the bomb in the man's shaking hands. Then all at once he was nearly swept away by a deluge of thoughts that slammed into him like a tidal wave.

_Really, again? Talk him down. Gil's gonna be furious. Ernesto didn't do this. Fuck. I hope some feeds Sunshine. I should have told Dani. If Ernesto isn't the killer, who else had motive? I should have gone to Tahiti..._

But his clusterfuck of thoughts was interrupted as the land mine slipped from Ernesto’s trembling fingers, the metallic ticking of the creep-spring echoing like a gunshot in the small storage space as the bomb fell towards the ground.

Ernesto sprinted towards the door as soon as the bomb had tilted over the tips of his fingers, crashing hard into Malcolm where he was blocking the doorway and nearly knocking him to the ground in his haste to get away.

Malcolm spared a brief thought for the fact that the bomb seemed to have surprised Ernesto as much as it had surprised him, but that thought was quickly shoved to the side and stomped on by a much larger part of his brain that was screaming, "RUN!"

For once, he actually listened to the rational part of his brain and was running before he was even fully upright, his dress shoes skidding as they struggled to find purchase on the dust-caked floor. He made it as far as the first turn in the tunnel when the bomb went off.

The blast wave slammed into Malcolm before he heard the explosion. He felt the searing heat beating through the layers of his suit, burning the tips of his ears, singeing his hair as the blast pitched him into the racking of whiskey crates.

And then he briefly felt nothing at all.

He groaned as he came to, face down on the gritty floor, bringing his palms to his ears as he tried to block out the high-pitched ringing reverberating through his ear drums. He was covered in fragments from the blast, chunks of cinderblock and splinters of barrels and pallets shrouded his body, and though he wasn’t able to twist around to see it, he could feel the weight of one of the industrial storage racks lying heavily over his shoulders and thighs.

His first deep breath left him coughing and spluttering on the fine, dust-like debris that blanketed the tunnels in a thick haze, lending a dismal grey cast to the space. He dropped his head into the crook of his elbow and tried to catch his breath, slowing to a shallow and even respiration to avoid breathing in any more of the fine particles than he absolutely had to.

He took a beat to assess his body for injuries before he attempted to wriggle free of the twisted metal that was pinning him down. Aside from feeling like he was going to have some pretty spectacular bruising - which he wasn't even sure he'd be able to differentiate from the bruises that were already aching from his short flight out of a third story window the day before - he didn't feel like any significant damage had been done. Nothing felt broken and he had no internal pain, making him think he should probably stop to buy a lottery ticket on the way home. _Who survives two explosions in as many days?_ He thought to himself with a wry chuckle.

With his upper legs pinned securely beneath the rack, it was impossible to use his feet to help push himself free, so he attempted to pull himself forward using only his hands. He huffed out a frustrated breath when he couldn't get any traction, his palms sliding uselessly on the ground in front of him. After a moment of struggle, he slumped in defeat, once again dropping his head onto his arm as he took some time to rethink his strategy. He realized he was going to have to find something to use as a lever to jack the metal up a few inches in order to pull himself free.

He lifted his head to look around for something within reach and froze as he caught sight of the silhouette of a man lumbering towards him, climbing over piles of twisted metal, tossing smaller obstacles out of his way as he stumbled forward. The only light in the tunnels was now coming from the open hatch leading outside, providing a backlit anonymity to the man who was steadily making his way towards Malcolm. That, combined with the fog-like cloud of dust permeating the air made it impossible to determine who it was, and Malcolm had a brief second of panic that Ernesto may have returned to eliminate him as a witness, even if the man hadn't meant to set off the bomb.

He started scrambling forward, groaning at the pull on his compressed back and thighs, when a warm hand landed on his shoulder and he craned his neck to find Gil standing above him, looking equal parts worried and relieved at finding Malcolm trapped but alive.

Malcolm could see that Gil's mouth was moving, but the ringing in his ears made it impossible to pick up the words. He stared hard at Gil's lips, focusing on the shapes of the words as he tried to work out what the man was saying when Gil's eyes widened in realization and suddenly his mouth stopped altogether and he pointed to his ears with a questioning look.

Malcolm nodded, and let his body sink back to the floor, suddenly exhausted by everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. It wasn't long before he felt the weight of the metal shelf being lifted off of him and he turned to see Gil hauling the heavy metal up and tipping it to fall away from his body, its landing setting a cloud of dust billowing into the air. The literal weight off of Malcolm's shoulders felt amazing but he took his time getting to his feet, wary of any hidden injuries.

Once he was upright, he turned to Gil and said, "Ernesto was down here. I don't think he meant to set off the bomb though." Or, at least, he thought he said it. Judging by how Gil startled backwards, he realized he must have shouted it, unable to hear how loudly he was speaking.

"I got him," Gil said slowly, enunciated the words so Malcolm could read his lips. "Are you okay?" Gil's hands were clasped tightly on Malcolm's upper arms, holding him steady and allowing Gil to maneuver Malcolm as needed to check for injuries.

"I'm fine," Malcolm said at a more appropriate volume as he purposefully lowered his voice to make allowance for the high-pitched tone that, thankfully, was slowly starting to fade. He brought his fingers to his ears and gave them a little wiggle, hoping to clear the sound but it made no difference.

Malcolm noticed that the tension was slowly starting to drain from Gil as he watched Malcolm moving around with ease, apparently unharmed, and he felt an uncomfortable surge of guilt for the amount of stress he caused the man, both generally speaking and the last two days in particular.

Gil leaned into Malcolm's space again, getting his attention from where it had wandered into thoughts of apologies and promises and ideas of how to get him a new Le Mans to replace the one that he had destroyed the day before.

"Bright? Can you walk?" Malcolm was pleased to note that he could hear a muffled parody of Gil's deep voice through the slowly decreasing ringing as the man spoke. Malcolm smiled at the realization, but it quickly turned to a frown he half-heard Gil say, "Let's get you to the hospital."

"Aww, come on, Gil," Malcolm whined in the same petulant tone he had used at 16 when Gil refused to take him on the more dangerous stakeouts, "I'm fine. Honestly."

Gil's eyebrows nearly hit his hairline as he shot Malcolm a thoroughly incredulous look, and Malcolm knew that he'd be hard pressed to win that argument. But Gil had let him get away with a quick once-over by the paramedics after the explosion yesterday and Malcolm was already working out what he'd have to say in order to talk Gil into letting that become a repeat performance.

"Really, Gil. This explosion didn't even involve me jumping out of a window," Malcolm said, completely reasonably. Gil's face wasn't buying it, so he tried a different tact. "Besides, a lengthy trip to the ER will make me miss my flight. Let's just take Ernesto to the precinct and get him into interrogation and then I'll head off to a tropical paradise."

Gil shook his head, but Malcolm could already tell he was primed to give in. He just needed a little push.

"Look, I'll let the paramedics look me over," he offered as a concession.

Gil looked him over once more, reassuring himself that Malcolm seemed relatively uninjured and Malcolm followed his gaze, taking in his absolutely destroyed suit. He was going to need to hit the tailor's soon if he kept going through suits like. He looked up as Gil formed his lips into a straight line and shook his head in exasperation.

"You're gonna be the death of me, kid," Gil whispered, and even though Malcolm couldn't hear it, he still felt the weight of the words falling heavy on his heart.

"I'm really alright. I promise," Malcolm said sincerely, looking him in the eye and making sure Gil knew he was telling the truth for a change, and not just downplaying his injuries as he was prone to do.

"Okay," Gil nodded and kept a hand on Malcolm's arm as he led him through the shambles of the tunnels and out into the fresh air above.

As they made their way back to the estate home to pick up Ernesto Cora from the security guards that Gil had turned the man over to, Malcolm brushed the debris off the front of his suit in a futile attempt to make himself more presentable.

"Mind if we swing by my apartment on the way?" Malcolm asked as he recognized how pointless the action was. "I think I may need to change again."

"Sure thing, kid." Gil said, raising his voice for Malcolm to hear, a smirk turning up the corners of his lips. "If I text your mom now, maybe she can have another one of those fancy white suits waiting for you by the time we get there."

**Author's Note:**

> In case you're wondering, about the timeline...
> 
> We know there was a day change somewhere in the episode (Ainsley's news report at the beginning says to join her tomorrow for wedding coverage), and I assume it fell between the explosion that threw Malcolm out the window and the meeting with the team in the conference room, since all four of them are in different outfits.


End file.
